Are SFSTs Field Sobriety Tests A Setup For Failure

Instead of a dry, boring article, the following is an excerpt from a recent interview with Attorney Leckerman on the subject.

Interviewer: Okay. So is it fair to say that these tests are set up for people to fail? There are a lot of things that could conspire against them and they’re not in an environment conducive to getting any valid result?

Kevin Leckerman: That’s a great way of putting it. These tests are set up for people to fail. There are few clients whom I’ve had that did the tests well. I’ve had clients in fact who did the tests poorly whenthe tests were administered properly. There was no physical condition that would have affected the person’s ability to do the tests. These clients were then taken to the station and blew into the breath test machine with breath test results well under the legal limit. So, you get a guy who may be a .05% BAC on a breath test machine who failed these three tests. It doesn’t mean that’s he’s not sober. It just means that he can’t do these meaningless balance tests.

The tests are designed to supposedly measure if somebody has a blood alcohol concentration of .08% or more. The tests were never designed to test if someone can drive a car safely. They’re only designed to see if somebody is supposedly over the legal limit.